We went in the game a little heavy with almost all first teamers apart from Timber in place of Zinchenko/Tierney and Trossard for Martinelli.
Barcelona scored first when Odegaard lost a ball in their half and Ezzalzouli did a great run before Lewandowski scored from a tap-in. We levelled back in 12th minute when Saka scored a brilliant goal. This kid just can’t stop scoring, can he? One thing to notice was Ben White was too high up the pitch both during when we conceded and scored. This leaves us with just a Saliba and Gabriel in a counter attack, and that’s why Partey’s midfield handling becomes important.
We had a Penalty awarded of a handball in 21st minute. Saka put it out wide, can happen with anyone but we seriously need to mix it up. We are making it easier for the opposition to read of Saka’s penalty game.
Barca scored again when a deflection from Odegaard lands into the net, of a free hit from outside the box. Now call what you want, it wasn’t a Ramsdale mistake but Ode’s. You don’t shy away from the kick if are standing as a wall.
Saka helped us again to level up in 42nd minute when he lofted a ball to Odegaard in the box which Havertz guided in the goalpost. 2-2 at half time.
A long ball in 55th minute, which Jesus guided to Trossard, who scored an inch-perfect goal. A lovely strike from Smith Rowe was saved few minutes later and a Dembele’s shot hit the woodwork at our end. Soon after in 78th minute, Trossard scored his second from a Tierney’s pass, leading us to 4-2. Barca scored in 87th minute to make it 4-3. However, within couple of minutes, we reclaimed our 2 goal difference when Vieira scored a perfect left-foot goal from outside the box. It was a beautiful goal, perhaps the best of the day.
Overall, we were good in attack and could have easily scored few more. We also need to iron out mistakes defensively, because out of those 3 goals, 2 would have not happened if Ode was a bit more aggressive. Partey showed us all, why I’m against selling him this season. He has been the backbone of our game, and replacing him with Rice without a handover would cost us. Think of Rice as a rotation to Partey and not a replacement for this season, and this solves our both problems – Partey’s injury and no drop in performance!
I think Arteta is still experimenting with Timber, after playing him at right back and left back. We will see what position he takes up but defensively we have enough options and there shouldn’t be any concern for any out of form players. When fit, Tomi is a world class player who can deputise at both ends and at CB. White can play RB, CB, so can Timber. Tierney is looking sharp, Zinny will be in the fold and Kiwior has started picking up things.
Partey is most likely not leaving this season, so our midfield looks even better. Rice can deputize him, Havertz, Trossard can cover #8, ESR is back to fitness and a fight for LW between Trossard and Martinelli is going to be an interesting one.
Couple of weeks more, if you are bored without football.
Hi Marc
My thoughts on your panglossian attitude to Brexit on the last stream. You possibly won’t enjoy being schooled but you asked for it with your ‘Blair (and Corbyn surely?) are to blame for everything world view’.
Bob – 😉. I enjoyed that. I often feel obliged to get Arsenal material into posts about important stuff!
Ambarish
Good assessment as usual. I want to suggest that we have a debate on an important point that relates to editorial policy. The question is…
Do pre-season games matter?
Other, lesser quality sites vacillate on this point and sound like double standard merchants, ie thinking we’re brilliant if we win, and saying don’t worry if we lose. Both theories cannot be true at the same time.
My own view (like Marc’s the other day) is that they Do matter. They are the best way of determining different players’ form, and they must have a bearing on players’ self and team confidence before the big stuff starts. They’re also the most effective way for the manager to work out the best team and playing formation ahead of the season. And there should be no distinction drawn between different games, be it Nuremberg or City in the Charity Shield.
So when we beat the Spanish champions it’s cause for celebration and when we lose to domestic title rivals it’s a blow, not a meaningless friendly. Can we all agree on that?
Is it really only 14 sleeps?
KP-all I know is that my ridiculous charges are just coming in for all the streaming sites I need this year to watch all the PL, CL and Cup matches, so we better figure our shit out in the preseason and hit the ground running come the 12th or I’m going to be fucking pissed…of course, I’m joking, as it’s certainly much cheaper than being there in person, but it’s getting a little fucking goofy now that you have to subscribe to 3 seperate sites, when just 2 years ago it was one-stop viewing for 1/3rd the price…milking mf’s
btw I concur with your last paragraph takes, as it’s never a nothing burger affair when you’re facing Barca or United…sadly, the latter was the most important match-up, contextually-speaking, and it was by far our shittiest footballing display, so let’s hope that’s not a glimpse of things to come…Cheers
Kroenke
Mate you need to wise up and take the political blinkers off.
I work for a company that both imports and exports to the EU and beyond – the girl who deals with it laughs at people who complain about “we can’t export anymore” its people who have a political agenda who are complaining.
Biden is anti English and the reason a trade won’t happen is fuck all to do with anything other than we don’t want one. We do massive business with the US anyway and US big pharma don’t like how the NHS procures drugs. It means we buy cheaper than what they sell to US hospitals – a trade deal would stop that.
The channel boats – we had issues before BREXIT then it was trucks, we stopped the trucks and now they use boats. The French don’t want to stop them (it’d be easy) because then the migrants are their problem not ours. They didn’t give a fuck before Brexit either.
NHS funding? It’s colossal 12% of GDP (our defence budget is barely 2%) the issue is the NHS model is no longer fit for purpose. Supposed envy of the world and yet no one has copied it, instead of being able to have a mature grown up discussion on how we make it work the left just uses it as a political football – Wes Streeting at least has the brains to realise something has to change. As for what happened during COVID? Starmer wanted to lock down sooner harder and for longer – you think things would have been different?
Fragmentation of the UK – good. It’s called self determination if that’s what they want then they should be allowed to pursue it. Why are the left always so against democracy?
Loose of access to EU financial markets? The City is doing fine and despite the EU’s best attempts to damage it (there were going to be tens if not hundreds of thousands of job loses) they are doing fine.
Feeling the pinch? Things are more expensive but that’s got far more to do with the hangover from COVID and the global reaction to it plus the war in Ukraine than BREXIT.
The fact that you can’t see the reason I blamed Bliar explains a great deal – we had far too much migration too soon. When the EU expanded into Eastern Europe other countries put limits on how many / how quickly people could come in – Bliar completely miscalculated how many would come and it caused a backlash with resulted in the BREXIT vote. How you can’t see that staggers me.
The thing that’s really funny is you think we have a Tory Government – they may be calling themselves that but the truth is they are left of centre. Highest tax burden since WW2, massive state interference in anything and everything and I haven’t seen a Union crushed in years.
Labour will win the next election I’m just curious on how you’ll explain everything getting much much worse.
on a sidenote, I hear that the original cover for the Wenger statue unveiling was actually going to have a zipper on it but at the last minute they opted go with something a little simpler, for obvious reasons…can you just imagine the scene?!?
“Do pre-season games matter?”
Depends on who you’re playing and the situation. We beat Barca (everyone cheer!) but it was their first game of pre season so its difficult to use it as a barometer of how we’re doing.
My issue the other day was with playing ManU – a team that’s going to be a direct competitor for 3rd or 4th, maybe even 2nd. When you have a team that is gaining a reputation of bottling it when the going gets tough its really not a good idea to give them a psychological edge.
The charity shield (or whatever its called now) will be very telling. If City are in the mood they could leave us looking punch drunk and beaten before a balls been kicked in real anger.
Marc – is your name actually ‘Mark’ as in Mark François?
Calling this current bunch of racist, state shrinking, free market ideologues ‘left of centre’ makes me wonder what you’re all injecting in the home counties these days. You should be laughing at that false nonsense, not taking it seriously.
What is it that your company exports? About the only thing we seem to be good at in terms of productivity is human shit, most of which is now bypassing the sewerage system directly into our rivers. Are your colleagues ‘harvesting’ and sending the overspill to Europe? Your single anecdote cuts no ice but I’m happy for you – the vast majority of companies have seen their markets reduce because of red tape, tariffs and diminishing productivity. Unless you’re a card carrying Tory, you ought to admit that Brexit was a total abortion in its current form.
You’re a capitalist so tell me why quitting a vast local, aligned and accessible trading block (it was a resignation, not a divorce) for, er, nothing, is good for business? In a general sense yeah?
I think you have a very narrow and media led perspective (no daily mirror for you!) which makes it difficult to see the wider, genuine picture. Your thoughts are really perceptive on a number of issues, but why so reluctant to criticise those responsible? I’ll say it again. Tony Blair is a shit bag but he ain’t to blame for the problems you describe.
You can have the last word after this I promise. 😊
Biden is anti English…
Mate, everyone is anti English! All over the world. 💩🏴💩 Me included, and I was born in Kent to English born parents and grand parents. If this comes as a surprise, it suggests an inability to read the room when confronted by foreign English haters (who make up the entire world’s population plus, er, me).
Here’s a funny anecdote. Where I live is full of English tourists right now, a vast number of whom are solipsistic, stroppy, uptight pricks with their collars turned up on their Hackett polo shirts, driving range rovers carelessly and aggressively on narrow country roads and acting like they belong. And that’s just the women! When dealing with English undesirables (!),
Welsh people love to slip in the apparently innocuous phrase ‘there we are then’. English punters think this is charmingly eccentric until they start thinking about acronyms. Yes, it spells out ‘T.W.A.T’. By then it’s too late and the English person has been hilariously mugged off in one of their own colonies, ie Wales.
Other Presidents also hate England. Trump loathes the place, Obama, Dubya, Bill Clinton, Macron, Angela Merkel, China, Israel, the entire EU for the treachery, the middle east for the needless killing, africa and the commonwealth for heavy handed neocolonialism, Russia and Ukraine because we’re not quite totalitarian enough and on and on and on. That’s why England always gets nul points!
TRVL
I believe you are in Canada (DAZN) and streaming is the way to go as I also constantly explore globally the best way how to get my sports fixes in the US.
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1st I got a VPN for $2.40 a month that has browser extensions as well as an app to set my servers for Australia, Ireland, Germany, New Zealand and the UK. I use the free accounts on some of the networks when the games are streamed Free To Air (FTA) on their websites. Like BBC iPlayer and ITVX.
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2nd I subscribe in the US to 3 services $100 per year add free to Paramount+ for CL and Seria A. Subscribe to Peacock for PL. Subscribe to ESPN+ $100 per year for the Cup games but may cancel it and use one of the many free links posted at numerous sites offering free links. I do have massive blockers that keep those sites honest. I also go the same route when Comcast decides to air games on their shitty USA cable channel.
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If you want all the sports in one place you need one of the pirate IP TV services you pay a minimal fee for. They have this problem licked all the sports in one place easy to get to and operate.
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More and more I am looking for football and rugby matches into other countries sports services and either get them for free through their FTA streaming channels on their websites. For example the network in New Zealand that carried the United Rugby Championship (URC) went bankrupt and TVNZ took over the contract for free for the duration of the contract and will air all URC matches live and on demand. So I have a free account on TVNZ, when games are on I switch the VPN to an Auckland server and watch for free.
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I do agree it is a hassle to keep up with who has what rights, but only IP TV service has the answer but it is difficult to get invitations or be accepted as they fear being taken down by authorities.
KP-love the “there we are then” phrase, as it’s the right up there with “see you next Tuesday”, but in texting short-form (c u next Tuesday) Cheers
Killroy-trust me I’ve tried several different avenues to properly circumvent the streaming shit show, but the VPN is oft-times dicey and can have poor feed quality, which makes it difficult to watch on my wall screen…as for the pirated gig, I did that for years, but it’s likewise quite unpredictable at times, plus I can’t get all my other sports packages(NHL, NBA and NFL) in that manner north of the border…thanks for the insights though…Cheers
Ah, other sports packages (NHL, NBA and NFL) that explains your search, have you ever dabbled into IPTV services like https://iptv-global4k.com/ or https://www.theiptvguide.com/
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Personally I have not investigated it as I am just into Football and rugby. However since sports is one of the major broadcasts that keeps live TV going and becomes more and more expensive I might be forced in the future to check it out myself.
right now, I’ve got Fubo for PL, Ligue 1, MLB and the Brazilian Serie A, then Dazn for CL, Belgian Pro League, NFL ticket and NHL, and a Sportsnet/TSN speciality package for Serie A, Bundesliga, FA/Caraboa Cup, La Liga and the NBA…in total these 3 packages cost me about $550/year, which would be vastly more if I paid for them monthly…I will look into those iptv gigs again, but as far as I know neither will suffice…probably wise for me to do a deeper dive over the next year, prior to my next re-up period, so that I can take the necessary measures from a payment standpoint, as all these mfers don’t employ call center personnel so as to deter those looking to cancel…it’s like they all learned a valuable yet weaselly lesson from the gym membership fuckwads of the early 2000s
Morning all
Good post Ambarish bit I agree with KP if you leave a couple of questions at the end of each post, it gives us some meat to chew on between us and hopefully new posters, too.
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If in and around BKK and the south we can get all sports from several sources; however, once you travel north the signals run out and you’re left with the local service that also runs a pirate service of its service you can buy coupons from in 7/11. There’s a good IPTV service out of Australia I’ve yet to try, but the games are mostly too late for me here.
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Lastly, I see the old cnut got his statue erected which is probably the only thing he can get erect these days. Wenger blew his legacy in destroying the club so badly we are 19 years without a title and likely to be a while longer. Had he gone in 2008, we would have had our pick of Klopp and Pep et al.
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The man never loved the club; only himself and is the only thing Pedro and I see eye to eye about. That we give Wenger a statue is rewarding failure at the highest level. The FA cup king and 4th is a trophy is what he’ll be remembered for. The Invincibles soon crumbled and it was downhill after that.
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Something the suits seem to think is correct.
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Is it just me or shouldn’t we reward winners who keep winning not ones who only win 9 years out of 22; leaving worthless tin pot cups out of it?
Tony,
Strongly disagree with your comment ‘The man never loved the club’.
Also the vast majority of the support welcome Wenger’s statue. I’m glad they left it five years, for those fans who were so disenchanted with his final years that they almost forgot his great years.
He will be remembered for the 3 PL titles, the 7 FA cups, the beautiful football and of course the unbeaten season. Of course he went on far too long but it has only tarnished his memory for a few. You obviously feel the way you do but that feeling is not shared by that many people.
It’s well deserved and I’ll happily tip my proverbial hat, every time I pass it as go to and from my seat.
Sorry Bob we are going to have to agree to disagree on this one and maybe keep it out of future convos.
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If Wenger had left after the Invincibles, he would have deserved his statue. The fact he stayed 12 years too long shows his love was for himself and not the club. His love for the club was his tagline only for self marketing purposes.
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Sorry, Bob, not forcing my opinion on you and duly noted yours’. That man caused me so much unnecessary pain over 12 years I can’t begin to put into words.
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I know I’m not alone as LG was founded on Wenger out. For me Chapman or GG were better managers and more honest and GG allegedly too a £50k bung, Shocker in football. How much to Raul make out of Venai’s rookie joint leadership role.
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Mind you Raul was the one guy Wenger couldn’t fight and eventually lost out to him. Just a shame Raul didn’t turn up in 2008. 🙂
GG honest hahaha
12 years of Wenger pain, really? So after 2006 no joy? Wow, no wonder you feel let down.
I agree he couldn’t see that he’d over stayed his welcome but I think that he was so obsessed with managing Arsenal that he couldn’t see the wood from the trees. To suggest he was motivated by self interest is a view that I can’t agree with.
GG got us an Europe trophy, Bob, and football was far different in this days.
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“It’s well deserved and I’ll happily tip my proverbial hat, every time I pass it as go to and from my seat.”
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Good god man why stop at tipping your hat – go the whole hog and kiss his ring-hole, you’ve had plenty of practice with your lord Arteta, thus far.
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Told you to disagree and walk away. 🙂
those days*
With the passage of time, the adjectives I’d use to describe Wenger have changed. They’ve not mellowed, they’re just different. He left the club in a dire mess and the last decade or so of his reign/sinecure (take your pick) he displayed an extraordinary degree of arrogance. Spineless leadership above him allowed the stagnation to persist. Chips, Old Man Kroenke and even Usmanov sat on their hands while stubborn chihuahua head buried us. He believed his own hype, but feeding Tony Adams the odd salad was not a prolonged guarantee of success. By the time we left thof, he’d become poacher turned gamekeeper, enjoying the vast sums of money paid to him but absolutely fucking lazy and spineless when it came to securing funds for good players. His early period was defined by some outstanding acquisitions – PV, Petit, Henry, Gilberto, Campbell. The latter period? He’ll be remembered for Ozil (our worst ever signing!), Gervinho, Chamakh and Kallstrom. The enigma around Wengo is how the fuck did someone so successful at fitting into an improving club end up taking them back to a level where we’d be established as a laughing stock. He’ll always divide opinion but I agree with Tony that he’s behind GG and Herbert in the pantheon of great managers. I fact I’d put him in 4th behind the Bertie Mee/Don Howe nexus.
Coming back to politics, Wenger’s tenure bears scrutiny with some world leaders whose impact fell off a cliff after they started to believe their own self-worth. Putin, Erdoğan and Netanyahu among the current shower of shit come to mind.
My latest adjectives for Wenger include profligacy, intransigence and utterly lacking in self-awareness.
I won’t be genuflecting in front of the statue and kissing the ring on future rare visits to N5. He won trophies but he lost a lot of them as well.